The Year in Music - 1981 90-81

But the future of Eighties music was making itself heard. U2 made the critics sit up and take notice with Boy (1980) and October (1981). Squeeze gave us a taste of "New Pop" with East Side Story, while Bruce Springsteen illustrated the future of Eighties folk-rock with the gritty, haunting realism of The River, significantly different from the romantic idealism of Seventies artists who worked in that genre. (This year Dan Fogelberg would produce the final encore of the latter with The Innocent Age.) Artists like UB40, The Specials, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Police, Prince, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Pat Benatar and Adam and the Ants all cranked out solid -- and in some cases exceptional) albums that gave proof through the long night of 1981 that the music was still there, and that some musicians dared to do more than trim their sales and steer a safe course through the calm seas of pop music. Punk rock and the New Romanticism were about to transmogrify into a New Pop tsunami ready to strike next year. Blondie was the trailblazer, with "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture" breaking into the Top Ten.

81. Hold On Tight » ELO
82. It's Now Or Never » John Schneider
83. Treat Me Right » Pat Benatar
84. Winning » Santana
85. What Kind Of Fool » Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb
86. Watching The Wheels » John Lennon
87. Tell It Like It Is » Heart
88. Smoky Mountain Rain » Ronnie Milsap
89. I Made It Through The Rain » Barry Manilow
90. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' » Daryl Hall & John Oates

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Music

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• Barbra
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